23, December 2016

Cabinet approves creation of ‘Indian Enterprise Development Service (IEDS)

Source: PIB

The Government has approved cadre review and formation of the Indian Enterprise Development Service (IEDS) in the Office of the Development Commissioner, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

The creation of the new cadre and change in structure is aimed at strengthening the organisation. It will also help achieve the vision of Startup India, Stand-up India and Make in India.

The measure will also enhance the capacity and efficiency of the organisation and also help in achieving growth in the MSME sector through a focussed and dedicated cadre of technical officers.

The Service has been created by absorbing 11 trades, recruitment to which had been done differently, following different rules.

All these trades were created in the 1950s and 1960s when industries got developed under the regulation regime. The work of the officers of the department has changed over the years and there is need to have a cadre which works for the development of enterprise and thinks holistically.

Way ahead:

The Indian Enterprise Development Service, to start with, will have a cadre strength of 617 officers, 6 of which will be at the level of joint secretaries.

These officers will man 72 field offices of the Development Commissioner and the headquarters in Delhi. Out of the 72 field offices, 30 are MSME development institutes and 28 branch institutes.

The Programme would be implemented at an estimated cost of Rs. 2,200 crore including World Bank loan assistance of US $ 200 million.

For the Technology Centre, Greater Noida, Government of India would be investing more than Rs.145 crore for creating facilities towards plant & machinery, development of civil and associate infrastructure.

MSME EXPO 2016 At Pragati Maidan New Delhi

MSME Expo 2016 was organized by Ministry of MSME in the 36th IITF 2016. Over 80 enterprises have showcased their range of products during the trade fair.

The theme of the fair is “Quality Manufacturing and Inclusive Growth of MSMEs” which includes Zero Defect, Zero Effect (ZED) Certification Scheme, SC/ST Hub & National Award.

Zero Defect, Zero Effect (ZED) Certification Scheme

ZED that has the over-arching objective of improving the quality and sustainability of manufacturing in India, by focusing on the MSME sector.

It will have sector-specific parameters for each industry. MSME sector is crucial for the economic progress of India and this scheme will help to match global quality control standards.

It was given for producing high quality manufacturing products with a minimal negative impact on environment

To develop and implement a ‘ZED’ culture in India based on the principles of:

Zero Defect (focus on customer)

Zero non-conformance/non-compliance

Zero waste

Zero Effect (focus on society)

Zero air pollution/liquid discharge (ZLD)/solid waste

Zero wastage of natural resource

National SC/ST hub:

The SC/ST hub aims to facilitate technology knowhow to reserved categories and increasing procurement by public and government units from SC/ST industrial units from existing 0.4 per cent to 4 per cent.

Hub aims at making more entrepreneurs from Dalits and tribals so that they become job-givers rather than job-seekers.

A number of them had a turnover of more than Rs 500 crore while 300 Dalit women were doing business of more than 100 crore.

The PM asked 1.25 lakh nationalised bank branches to give loans to SC/ST men and women entrepreneurs and

If two loans each, one each men and women category, upto 1 crores are given, banks can give up to 3.75 lakh such loans and hence can help the Dalits and tribals in making them self-dependent.

Background:

There has been some increase in the number of SC/ST owned enterprises but this number needs to increase substantially to enable the socio-economic empowerment of SC/ST communities.

In this direction, the National SC/ST Hub in an initiative of the Government of India targeted towards developing a supportive ecosystem towards SC/ST entrepreneurs.

After the announcement of creating National SC/ST Hub was made, MSME Ministry consulted the stakeholders including DICCI, Industry Association, Banks and relevant Ministries to suggest concrete steps to the proposed SC/ST Hub.

Based on inputs received from the stakeholders a draft scheme for the proposed Hub was prepared and shared with CEO Niti Aayog as directed by PMO.

Criticising the government for its “indifferent attitude” towards the implementation of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Supreme Court has directed the National Legal Services Authority to frame schemes for spreading legal awareness and free consultations to members of the SC/ST communities nationwide.

Equality for all

A Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, asked the authorities to discharge their duties to protect the SCs/STs to attain the constitutional goal of equality for all citizens.

The constitutional goal of equality for all the citizens can be achieved only when the rights of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are protected.

The abundant material on record proves that the authorities are guilty of not enforcing the provisions of the Act, the Bench.

It asked the National Legal Services Authority to formulate appropriate schemes to spread awareness and provide free legal aid to SCs and STs.

NALSA:

The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free Legal Services to the weaker sections of the society.

The Chief Justice of India is patron-in-chief of NALSA while second seniormost judge of Supreme Court of India is the Executive-Chairman.

Towards fulfilling the Preambular promise of securing to all the citizens, Justice – social, economic and political, Article 39 A of the Constitution of India provides for free legal aid to the poor and weaker sections of the society, to promote justice on the basis of equal opportunity.

Articles 14 and 22(1) of the Constitution also make it obligatory for the State to ensure equality before law.

In 1987, the Legal Services Authorities Act was enacted by the Parliament, which came into force on 9th November, 1995 to establish a nationwide uniform network for providing free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of the society.

There is a provision for similar mechanism at state and district level also headed by Chief Justice of High Courts and Chief Judges of District courts respectively

In every State, State Legal Services Authority has been constituted to give effect to the policies and directions of the NALSA and to give free legal services to the people and conduct Lok Adalats in the State.

The State Legal Services Authority is headed by Hon’ble the Chief Justice of the respective High Court who is the Patron-in-Chief of the State Legal Services Authority.

In every District, District Legal Services Authority has been constituted to implement Legal Services Programmes in the District.

The District Legal Services Authority is situated in the District Courts Complex in every District and chaired by the District Judge of the respective district.

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Pardon, the gender wage gap is showing

Source: The Hindu

International Labour Organisation (ILO) finds women form 60% of lowest paid wage labour, but only 15% of highest wage-earners

Global Wage Report 2016-17 was recently released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Keyfacts:

India performance:

India has among the worst levels of gender wage disparity — men earning more than women in similar jobs — with the gap exceeding 30%.

In India, women formed 60% of the lowest paid wage labour, but only 15% of the highest wage-earners. This means not only are women poorly represented in the top bracket of wage-earners, the gender pay gap at the bottom is also very wide in India.

In India, the top one per cent earned 33 times what the bottom 10% did. The top 10% also earned 43% of all wages. Since 2006, average wages rose by 60% in India, while they more than doubled in China.

The report also found that the share of women among wage earners was among the lowest in South Asia. Compared to a global average of 40 per cent, and an Asia-Pacific average of 38 per cent, in South Asia (whose dominant economy is India), only 20 per cent of wage earners were women.

Reasons:

The report noted that typically, women’s educational choices produced occupational segregation. For instance, since the majority of those who studied nursing were women, “this profession is over-represented among women”.

At the same time, care work is undervalued because it may be seen as a natural female attribute rather than a skill to be acquired. Thus, a higher representation of women in sectors where their work is undervalued results in a gender pay gap.

The Coal Mitra Web Portal has been designed to bring about flexibility in Utilization of Domestic Coal by transferring the reserves to more cost efficient State/Centre owned or Private sector generating stations, leading to lower generation costs and ultimately lesser cost of electricity for the consumers.

The web portal would be used by the State/Central Gencos to display information about normative fixed and variable charges of electricity for the previous month as well as margin available for additional generation so as to enable the utilities identify stations for transfer of coal.

It would host data on Operational and Financial parameters of each coal based station;

Quantity and source of supply coal to the power plant; and Distance of Power plant form the Coal mine.

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